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Show " I Reservation News - - - f ft) About The - X ft UINTAH-OURAY INDIAN RESERVATION j? M. A. "AL" BETTS RETIRES AFTER 34 YEARS SERVICE One of the most interesting careers in the Indian Service came to an end last Friday, Oct. 23, when announcement was made that Matthew Albert (Al) Betts, Indian stockman, had retired and he and his wife have moved to Carson City, Nevada to make their home. Mrs. Betts will teach Home Economics Ec-onomics at the Indian Boarding School at Carson City. For thirty-four years "Al" Betts has been affiliated with the Indian Service with thirty of those years spent right here in the Uintah Basin working with the Ute Indian tribes. The other four years were spent in Montana with the Blackfeet tribe. They had lived in White-rocks White-rocks all those thirty years. Not all the time has "Al" " Betts been a stockman for the Utes. . . For 24 years he was connected with the Indian School at Whiterocks, and was acting principal from 1930 to 1933. He" had also been Indian farmer at Whiterocks for several sever-al years. While acting as farmer, farm-er, his beef and dairy herds rated rat-ed high in the entire Indian Service. In fact for several years his dairy herd was judged first among all dairy herds. In all his thirty-four years with the Indian Service, Mr. Betts made great contributions in the field of 4-H and Scouting work among the Indian children. chil-dren. His wife, who is part cherokee and was born in Clar-more, Clar-more, Okla., was Home Econom- ics teacher at the Whiterocks School and along with her husband hus-band made great contributions to the lives of the young In-. In-. dian people. They have also been active in civic affairs in their community. A native of Salt Lake City, where he was born and raised sixty-four years ago, "Al" Betts came to the Uintah Basin in 1911 and excepting the four years spent in Montana,' has lived here continueously. Mr. and Mrs. Betts have no children. In summing up his life among the Indians, Roy Adams, who for years was affiliated with the educational program j of the Ute tribes, had this to say about "Al" Betts "Never I in the history of the reservation reserva-tion has a single individual given giv-en more to the growth and development de-velopment of Indian culture than has Mr. . Betts, and his place will be very, very hard to fill No man could get closer to the Indian, and his advice and counsel was constantly sought and appreciated by members mem-bers of the local bands," Mr. Adams continued. R-N SOIL CONSERVATION Wilson C. Gutzman Soil Conservationist The Ute Tribe has many thousands of acres of land infested in-fested with sagebrush which is potential good grass producing land. All that is needed is, to clear the sagebrush and plant the areas to crested wheatgrass. This land now is producing just a fraction of the stQck feed it is -capable of sustaining. By conversion con-version from sagebrush to grass these areas will support several times the number of stock as they can support at present. The Soil & Moisture Conservation division of the Indian service, cognizant of this fact, is taking action to bring these areas into better production of feed for livestock and to protect the val. uable soil. Since July 1, 1953 this department of the Indian service, located at Fort Duchesne has eradicated 3,172 acres of sagebrush on range lands in the Hill Creek area. 1,962 acres were cleared by wheatland plows; 700 acres were Rototilled and 510 acres were Rotobeat. This cleared acreage is being seeded to crested wheatgrass by drill and broadcast methods. Ap-i Ap-i proximately 2,200 acres ofthe 3,172 have been seeded already. Now "oldman" weather must do the rest; moisture must be had to germinate the seed. The past year has been very bad for re-seeding re-seeding operations, because of the severe prolonged drouth we have had. - Seeding made -last fall did not germinate too well and the stands were limited; however, we still anticipate a good stand on these areas, because of crested crest-ed wheatgrass' ability to carry over and germinate later if there is "not enough moisture to geminate gem-inate crops. With experimental seedings, some establishment of Madrid sweetclover and sandlove grass has been achieved on Wolf Flat in Hill Creek. Even with the very limited moisture these two species germinated well. A contract has just been awarded Bill ' Coltharp, Jr. of Roosevelt, Utah to clear 2,200 acres of sagebrush on Flat Rock Mesa in the Hill Creek area. His bid was $2.70 per acre. Mr Wells Speakman of Fillmore, Fill-more, Utah who was low bidder on contracts last spring has just completed 1,332 acres of clearing clear-ing on Big Canyon Flat in Hill Crekr at $3.00 per acre. Mr. Speakman also bid on the Flat Rock Mesa contract but was a high bidder with $3.00 per acre. Mr. Earl Hatch of Roosevelt also bid but was second high at $2.75 per acre. Only the above three men bid on the work although, bids were circulated cir-culated around all over the state. If the good weather holds out, Mr. Coltharp will get this 2,200 acres cleared and we will plant it also this fall. |